How 'Convenient' In-Store Pickup Became Four Inconvenient Trips To Best Buy

Oliver thought that ordering online from Best Buy and then picking his purchase up from his local store would be the fastest and most convenient way to get his purchase from the retailer. Normally it would be, except for one key detail: he had Best Buy gift cards to use up, but had forgotten to use them when he placed the order online. Best Buy’s computers couldn’t cop with this mistake, and he was punished by having to make four 80-mile round trips to the nearest Best Buy store to get his purchase.

I thought the smart thing to do was to purchase something online and pick it up. I had forgotten to use my gift cards, so I figured that I could easily rectify that when I went to pick my order up. I was wrong.

Visit 1 – Pick up order. Tried to change payment method. Determined that returning the items and then re-purchasing the items with gift cards would be the easiest thing to do. Unable to do so due to the fact that the computer system hadn’t updated. Was told to come back in 2 hours.

Visit 2 – Three hours later I tried to perform the same transaction only to be told that I needed to come back the next day due to the system not updating again.

Visit 3 – Two days later I was finally able to return the items and re-purchase them with gift cards.

Visit 4 – I noticed that when I re-purchased the items, I was charged $20 more than original purchase price. Luckily they were able to rectify the situation and credit me the $20.

I live in [redacted], which is 40 miles away. I purchased online so that I could make one quick visit, but instead it turned into 4 inconvenient visits.

Here it is: the one rare case where having an item delivered to your home is actually faster than in-store pickup.